Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-05-09
OF INTEREST TO WEST TEXAS.
How to Prevent Drouths in Future by
Tree Planting.
San Antonio EXpress

San Antonio Express.
NEW ORLEANS, LA, May 2.-To avoid
drouths must be the all-absorbing topic
of the farmers and stockmen of your sec
ton of the great state of Texas. We
have often thought that most of the ills
which incorrectly man is said to be heir
to, are and can be readily traced to crImi-
nal negligence, being simply natures
compensation. The compromising me-
dunn for drouths is trees, and it is Just
as necessary for mans well being to
have trees around him as the duck to
go to water, except in this case the
mountain willnot come to MahOmet; so
your drouth-stricken people must make
the mountain (the fOrest) come to them by
planting trees. Let every land owner of
the treeless plains plant upon the highest
ground say ten acres of pine saplings and
as their trunks extend from terra frma to
their azure ether their each and every
straw-leaVed branch distilling turpent1ne
from the surrounding air will also con-
dense the atmosphere and bring the need
! ed cooling rain. The large-leaVed south
| ern pine. pinus Australis, so common in
northeastern Texas, is the best tree
/ that could be planted, although oak and
other trees have considerable, though
| to q less extent, this attractive cOndensa-
ton power; and the cedars, perhaps, less
than any other. All nature seeks its
affinity. Barren rocks or parched grassy
plains will not tend toward cloud max
ing; but how different the effect when
the mountain peak and hill top are clad
with NATURES lightning conductor, the
pine. The cloud strata is enticed to sur
render its surplus Vapor, and the dew is
collected and retained. Even the upper
oceanic currents of vapor will be arrested
in their onward course, and, condensing,
flow down the hills and mountains to
YOUR burning palms, bringing fertility
where before was drouth.
Had the ancient inhabitants of the Sa'
hars obeyed the laws of nature by main
taing the equilibrium Of forest growth
that ever rolling sea of sand would not
exist as a punishment for the infractior
and lasting monument of their thought
less crime. The great cities of the Med
Carthage, Tyre and Sidon-
throve at the expense, the exhaustion O.
!, the fertile plains to their south, which
after giving up their all for tribute anC
the desert as portion, have the poor sat
isfaction in compensation therefor to SET
the cities entombed il the SEES, the effec
of the rapacity Of man.
Yes, the climate of Western Texas ma!
be entirely changed by GASES Of trees, snC
innumereble springs, now unknown, viii
burst forth from the heretofore parcheC
,, plains, bearing fertility and life-giVins
properties on their rills. Now is the
time to commence planting; in fact, sap
lings may be safely planted all through
. the summer with little care st the start
, and as matter of fact many trees, par
, ticularly the pine, can best be planted il
I the autumnal months; and certainly ar
rangements can or ought to be easil.
made with nurserymen for saplings o
pine and other forest trees by the hun
dred at reasonable rate.
An orchard of ten acres Of forest tree
on a prairie farm will soon pay all thu
costs and trouble of its infancy, which
should be enough incentive to call it int
existence. We have no hesitancv in say
ing that, as we'll as besutifying the land
scape, modersting the heats OF sum
mer and the colds of winter, dispensing
the sirocco-like winds of the heated tern
and also the billiards of the wintel
months, that tree planting viii be fount
70 be g very profitable undertaking II
Western Texas and will be the tomb
: stone Of the drouth. Yours truly,
". 81. YATES,
Professor of Forestry and Climatology.